Unveiling the cloak of deviance: Linguistic cues for psychological processes in fake online reviews

Lin Li, Kyung Young Lee, Minwoo Lee, Sung Byung Yang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Although fake online reviews have been gaining more attention from both academics and practitioners, little effort has been made to explore the linguistic characteristics of the psychological processes related to fake reviews. This research proposes four linguistic cues (i.e., affective, cognitive, social, and perceptual) related to a reviewer's psychological processes and explores their relationships with fake reviews while examining the influence of time distance and reviewer location on these reviews. The results of logistic regression analysis of 43,496 reviews from Yelp.com suggest that affective, social, and perceptual cues are significantly related to fake reviews with the presence of the significant effects of time distance and reviewer location. Further, the results of post-hoc analysis confirm that the effect of photos on fake reviews is limited. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on online reviews and interpersonal deception theory, providing valuable implications for practitioners in the hospitality and tourism industry.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102468
JournalInternational Journal of Hospitality Management
Volume87
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

  • Deviant online behavior
  • Fake review
  • Interpersonal deception theory
  • Linguistic cue
  • Psychological process
  • Yelp.com

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